A wireless communication apparatus includes a mechanism for estimating carrier-to-interference (C/I) ratio using a variable bandwidth filter. More particularly, the wireless communication apparatus includes a channel equalization unit coupled to a C/I ratio estimation unit. The channel equalization unit may be configured to calculate instantaneous carrier-to-interference (C/I) ratio values of a received signal. In addition, the C/I ratio estimation unit may be configured to calculate a C/I ratio estimate by filtering successive ones of the instantaneous C/I ratio values. The C/I ratio estimation unit may also be configured to determine whether a transmitter of the signal is transmitting voice data in a voice channel of the signal. The C/I ratio estimation unit may be further configured to inhibit the filtering in response to determining the transmitter of the signal is not transmitting the voice data such as during DTX mode, for example.